Spreewerke VG-2

Five different companies in Germany produced designs for the last-ditch Volkssturm bolt action rifles, and they were designated VG-1 through VG-5. The VG-2 was developed by the Spreewerke company, and differed from the others in its use of a sheet metal stamped receiver (and consequently a pretty distinctive look).

In total, somewhere between 16 and 18 thousand VG-2s were manufactured, although they remain very scarce in western collections (most likely because most of them were lost or captured in areas overrun by the Red Army rather than the US or British forces). They retained a basic Mauser mechanism, and used spare Luftwaffe aircraft MG barrels. Unlike some of the Volkssturm arms, the VG-2 appears to have been pretty much unchanged throughout its production run.